From 1996 to 2020, 10 940 unaccompanied minor refugees were granted a permanent residence and settled in Norway. By the beginning of 2023 - 10 173 of them were still residents in Norway.
Unaccompanied minor refugees from Afghanistan are the single largest group (45 per cent), followed by Eritrea (14 per cent), Somalia (10 per cent) and Syria (7 per cent). Nearly 400 unaccompanied minor refugees from Ukraine where settled in 2022 under the collective protection scheme – the largest group settled that year.
Unaccompanied minor refugees who come to Norway are initially settled relatively decentralized, and a total of 263 of the country's municipalities have settled unaccompanied minor refugees in the years 1996-2022. However, many of them move in the first years after settlement, and by the end of 2022, about half of the refugees had moved from their original municipality of settlement. Most people move from the smallest municipalities, and many eventually go to Oslo and the other big cities. In 2022, one in five lived in Oslo, while less than 7 percent originally settled there.
Those who have been resettled as unaccompanied minor refugees have on average a lower level of education than the general population, and as much as 6 out of 10 only have primary school as their highest completed education. Participation in the labor market among the single minor refugees is roughly the same as in previous years, and 8 out of 10 aged 18 to 39 were active (that is, in work, education or in the introduction program) at the end of 2022. This is roughly on a par with other underage refugees who have come to the country with their family, but a good deal lower for the population in the same age group.
Among those who have been settled as unaccompanied minor refugees, and who have reached the age between 18 and 39, around 75 per cent were employed in November 2022. This is a good deal higher than for other minor refugees (66 per cent), but somewhat lower than for the general population in the corresponding age group (78 per cent). The proportion of employed among the single minor refugees has increased by 3 percentage points from 2021 and close to 12 percentage points from the corona year 2020.
The proportion of employed people is higher for men (76 per cent) than for women (63 per cent), and there are significant differences according to country of origin and length of residence. The single minor refugees with a background from Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Eritrea and Ethiopia have a higher proportion of employed people than those from Somalia and Iraq, among others. Unaccompanied minor refugees with a background from Ukraine have a very short average length of stay, and few have passed the age of 18. Currently, only one in ten Ukrainians is employed.
The level of income among those settled as unaccompanied minor refugees, is much lower than in the general population at the same age. In the age group 18-29 years, median income per consumption unit was 72 per cent of the general median income level in 2022. The level of income rises with time of residence. Among those settled as unaccompanied minor refugees, now in the age group 30-39 years, median equivalent income was 77 per cent of the median income in the whole population at the same age. Compared with the two previous monitors, the relative level of income has risen in both age groups due to fewer in education and more in employment. Many unaccompanied minor refugees are at persistent risk-of-poverty as adults. As the length of residence goes up, the share of people with persistent low income goes down as income from employment rises.